MOBILE MANIPULATION PLATFORM FOR AUTONOMOUS INDOOR INSPECTIONS IN LOW-CLEARANCE AREAS

Erik Pearson, Paul Szenher, Christine Huang, Brendan Englot

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Mobile manipulators have been used for inspection, maintenance and repair tasks over the years, but there are some key limitations. Stability concerns typically require mobile platforms to be large in order to handle far-reaching manipulators, or for the manipulators to have drastically reduced workspaces to fit onto smaller mobile platforms. Therefore we propose a combination of two widely-used robots, the Clearpath Jackal unmanned ground vehicle and the Kinova Gen3 six degree-of-freedom manipulator. The Jackal has a small footprint and works well in low-clearance indoor environments. Extensive testing of localization, navigation and mapping using LiDAR sensors makes the Jackal a well developed mobile platform suitable for mobile manipulation. The Gen3 has a long reach with reasonable power consumption for manipulation tasks. A wrist camera for RGB-D sensing and a customizable end effector interface makes the Gen3 suitable for a myriad of manipulation tasks. Typically these features would result in an unstable platform, however with a few minor hardware and software modifications, we have produced a stable, high-performance mobile manipulation platform with significant mobility, reach, sensing, and maneuverability for indoor inspection tasks, without degradation of the component robots’ individual capabilities. These assertions were investigated with hardware via semi-autonomous navigation to waypoints in a busy indoor environment, and high-precision self-alignment alongside planar structures for intervention tasks.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication25th International Conference on Advanced Vehicle Technologies (AVT)
ISBN (Electronic)9780791887288
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023
EventASME 2023 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, IDETC-CIE 2023 - Boston, United States
Duration: 20 Aug 202323 Aug 2023

Publication series

NameProceedings of the ASME Design Engineering Technical Conference
Volume1

Conference

ConferenceASME 2023 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, IDETC-CIE 2023
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityBoston
Period20/08/2323/08/23

Keywords

  • Automatic Navigating Control
  • Networked Information Processing
  • Vehicle Environment Perception

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'MOBILE MANIPULATION PLATFORM FOR AUTONOMOUS INDOOR INSPECTIONS IN LOW-CLEARANCE AREAS'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this